LAYTON, Utah — A tweet from Hill Air Force Base revealed the source of two loud booms reported by FOX 13 viewers from Salt Lake City to Ogden.
“Noise residents heard today likely from two planned detonations at #HILLAFB UTTR in Utah’s west desert,” the tweet said.
The “UTTR” in the tweet stands for Utah Test and Training Range.
“The UTTR is used in a training capacity for air-to-air combat, air-to-ground inert and live practice bombing and gunnery training by DoD aircrews. The UTTR provides a vast area of realistic terrain for world-class test and training scenarios to ensure the war fighter is prepared to deploy at a moments’ notice to win any conflict with decisive air and space power,” a document [PDF] on the Hill Air Force base website says.
FOX 13 received reports that the first boom was heard around 11:30 a.m. and the second around 12:08 p.m.
Hill Air Force Base officials are expected to release more details as they become available.
